My bro had the same problem with getting into car mechanics. Hes got some qualifications for it, but not having the golden ticket (vocational apprenticeship) he lacks experience, and that is exactly the reason the employers are giving him at his job interviews. He is perfectly confident of handling a car mechanic job, but without "experience" they wont give him a chance. So now he's in a bullshit situation, trying to make some experience in a body fitting job, hopefully 6-12 months of that should get him closer.

Maybe thats what you need to do, aim lower at first. Do 6-12 months of some mickey-mouse job in the same field.

I've been there Ox, i know how it is.

In theory that sounds good Derf, but my story was:

* i was overqualified to work in the laboratory itself (to get experience in the field), they preferred bachelors or so for that

* i didn't have the experience needed/wanted for the jobs that required a masters degree

So basically it's often really frustrating to get a job in your field here.

yea, that's pretty common. Nobody will hire you without experience, but it's a bit hard to get experience until you get hired. Which is why the first job I got in my current field (IT) was a mass moron outsourced tech support thing. Now I have more salable skills and can get news jobs easier (though not necessarily at the wage I want). Of course, IT is a bit different from language...I actually have real-world provable skills and experience. I imagine it's a little harder to prove you can actually speak foreign languages. Or something.

Anyway, good luck. Aim low to begin with (as others have suggested), get your experience.

I don't think there's a huge difference between being able to prove IT skills or language proficiency tbh; I mean most companies do test your skill before signing you to be sure. How do they test IT skills anyway? Is it just a talk about your knowledge of various programs/lingo's, or do they make you do written tests or problem-solving at a pc? In my case it's usually written tests, followed by a conversation in those languages.

And yeah, well, aim lower is good and everything but that just isn't my style. yet. I'm sure I'll do so in a bit if nothing comes through. But meh, I hate work that doesn't have a point. On the bright side, I netted a 30.000 word translating job a few days ago. Not sure about when I start and how much i'll make on it but it's a good intermezzo.

And J, don't say that man, i don't want to end up as a teacher! hehe, jk. Lots of pals are teachers now and they say it's pretty relax. Good pay (for people like us with worthless degrees anyway ), lots of time off...only 'problem' is that you have to work at home too.

For me it's not relax at all, but i guess it depends a lot on the subjects you teach. I have a lot of extra 1 hour/week classes next to what i'm supposed to be teaching, like some geography etc. And that eats up a whole lot of my time. I guess languages is a different story. I haven't heard the new french teachers complain that much for instance.

Good luck with the job hunt anyway. I'm gonna make up some more exams.

Hehe thanks, have fun pwning kids

I've been out with a teacher friend of mine for two-three days in a row now...it's like he's even more out of a job than I am But he's just having time off after making exams en supervising...so yeah, there's probably a difference.

I'm little off topic.

Once I had job interview for AutoCAD modeler place. Well, since there is really little to be said about the program itself and my fluence in achieving anything achievable there, I entered a short story about 3D Programmer's part of my CV. The guys listened to me carefully and on end told me I'd better try to find job in NASA.

Yeah... job interviews suck sometimes.

haha. Pwnt by NASA.

Hehe...did I mention I have a job, you whores? Well, not a permanent thing but semi-self employed. I'm translating some shit to from Dutch to English for the governement. 100 pages of naval speak.

But it's ok pay, and the first real addition to my CV. Also, now the social services can't say I don't work, cos I freaking do. It's pretty hard work too cos I have to get it ready by the 15th. So I'm pretty much staying at home staring at the pc all day. Woohoo!

Good stuff dude! The that shit on yo CV. It will probably be one of those things that goes very slowly as you start off.

I have an aunt that does English-Italian translation.

If you learn Arabic, Korean or Chinese you'd be virtually guaranteed a job with the US military.

Good job on the employment though. The hardest thing is getting that first job...after that it's downhill.